The Discovery of Heaven

Harry Mulisch

Onno, an amateur philologist obsessed by the Phaistos Disk, comes from one
of the Netherland's leading political families. Max, a womanising radio
astronomer, is the son of a collaborator who was executed after the Second
World War. An unlikely pair brought together by chance — or angelic
intervention — they immediately strike up a firm friendship. When Max
meets Ada, a cellist, she is not just one of his usual girlfriends,
but it is Onno who ends up marrying her. Ada goes to Cuba to perform
and Onno and Max accompany her — they are mistaken for delegates to a
revolutionary forum — and it is not clear which of them is the father
of Quinten, born nine months later.

After a car accident leaves Ada in a coma, Quinten is brought up by Max
and Ada's mother Sophia, in a country castle which they share with an
unusual assortment of tenants. Among them are a locksmith, an architect,
and a philologist, who have just the skills to train Quinten for the
task for which he has been brought into the world. For that he must
find Onno, who has first become involved in politics and then become a
kind of hermit, and the two of them must travel first to Rome and then
to Jerusalem — to undo the covenant God made with man. The Discovery
of Heaven is set within a framing story in which one angel reports to
another on how events have been manipulated to this end, to bring Quinten
into the world and then to lead him to his goal — with some extra work
to dispose of pesky astronomers who discover too much about the universe.

The Discovery of Heaven is a novel of ideas on a large scale,
sprawling across science, religion, architecture, politics and more.
Though intellectual in its preoccupations, it is never didactic: ideas
are integrated with the plot and characters and never allowed to get in
the way of the story. The overall tone is also light-hearted, though
it never lapses into the comic. And Mulisch never pushes any of the
ideas too far — at least, none of the science made me wince, though
I'm pretty sensitive to misuse of scientific ideas.

These strong points, however, are paralleled by some obvious criticisms
that can be levelled at The Discovery of Heaven. It is shallow, never
treating any of its subjects at length, or that seriously. The theology
of the framing story may trouble some and, though I never found suspension
of disbelief a problem, having angels intervene to manage the plot is
too easy. And the character range is limited: the principal characters
all have lives centred on ideas (Quinten is a typically unconvincing
child prodigy), none of the female characters are at all substantial,
and many of the strongest elements are autobiographical.

If you're after a large but lively novel of ideas, however, held together
by an engaging story, then I highly recommend The Discovery of Heaven.